It's summer people! ANyone have any interesting vacation or camp experiences
they'd like to share? This is the place

71 responses total.

No...but i will be going to a summer camp july 18.
*yay*

Went to Australia for vacation. Very nice country. Nice people. I liked
Melbourne a lot.  It's very clean and peaceful.  Would like to live there
some day!

I'm on vacation this week... and I'm spending it in Ann Arbor!! :-)
[I used to live here but now reside in Durham, North Carolina.]

My summer vacation will be spent painting a mural for the city of
gaithersburg, MD.  I am looking forward to finishing it, but bummed that no
one I know will be around to actually see it!

i will be leaving for loveland co. the grand canyon and sante fe n.m. in 20
days.....ill be gone for 10 days...miss me!!!!

(I worked in Loveland Colorado for three months once.  It's an OK little town,
 but the cool thing is the road from there up into the mountains, to Estes
 Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  It's a gorgeous part of the country,
 one of the best, and I'm sure you'll love it.)

I am not going on any vacations this summer, but I have been to the
Rockies. Particularly the portion of the Colorado "Front Range" that Jan
describes. It is magnificent. The Rocky Mountain National Park has
oodles of people during the summer, but just a bit south of it, there is a
marvelous area, part of the National Forest System, called the
"Indian Peaks" area.

There's a rustic campgtound at 10,500 feet altitude, and trails to the
continental divide at Pawnee Pass, which is 12,500. Only 4 miles away. but
allow all day for the hiking, and bring in something to drink.

Lots of people (including me) get altitude sickness when they get much above
8000 feet.  You feel a bit weak and slightly sick.  It's not really bad.  I
usually take things a bit easy, drink plenty of water, eat salty foods for
a bit.  It passes if you stay up there a few days.  So if you do a trail
like the one Steve describes, don't plan on necessarily being able to zoom
through it.

I went to a 7 day long summer camp.  It was a tent camp.  On one of the days,
me and a bunch of my friends sneaked off the camp and went swimming in the
flint river.  We walked upstream until we came to about a 15 foot bridge (it
was 15 ft off the ground).  The water was about 4 feet deep.  We started out
just by jumping off.  Then we got dareing and jumped off backwards and did
360's.  Then one of my friends dared me to do a flip.  So i did, and it was
the funnest thing ever.  I started a new thing: Doing flips off the flint
river, i mean into the Flint river.  When we got back to camp, our leaders
yelled at us and asked us where we went.  We told them and they wanted to
know.  So we took them there, and believe it our not, the whole camp made a
time where everyone could come and jump off the bridge just because of me!

I went to U-M's Camp CAEN (Computer Aided Engineering Network), and sort-of
learned to program in C.  Did lots of other stuff there, too, but that's the
most notable.

Colorado must be popular this year, I too am heading out there in less than
two weeks, but we are driving out there so hopefully the altitude sickness
will be lessened a bit. <cross fingers>

The first time I encountered that trail, my two kids were too young. I had
to do some carrying, and I did run into altitude problems with that exertion.

I went back prepared a few years later, and it was no problem. Yes, don't
underestimate the altitude's affect. It is very real, but it is still very
manageable trail for most people if you allow enough time, and bring water.

I don't think driving helps much.  I always drove in, but Denver is only at
5000 feet, too low to cause most people any problem.  It's the actual climb
into the mountains that gets people.  However, I have the impression I had
less problems when I'd been living at 5000 feet for some time than when I
had just arrived in the area.  In any case, it isn't a big problem for most
people.  Just something to be prepared for.

We've been skiing at Winter Park the past several years. The town is at
8,000', and the lodge at the top is at 10,000'. I've never noticed any
effects at those elevations. Even at 14,000 one only huffs and puffs a bit
more (when I was lots younger.... ;->). But there are lots of warnings
around town to not overdo yourself on the mountain, which is probably a
good approach while you are determining your own limits. We'll be in
Colorado too, in August, but we aren't planning any hikes above 10,000'. 

I usually takes a day to get over altitude sickness, if you take it easy.
When I was in Colombia and Ecuador, I lost weight, which I believe to be
a pleasant side effect of altitude

I wonder if one's ability to adjust to altitude changes diminishes
with age, especially if you're out of practice and have spent most
of your life at low altitude. When I was a kid, my family regularly
vacationed in the Yellowstone Park area, and I don't recall having
any problems with the altitude after a day or two. Five years ago
we took another trip to that region -- my first extended exposure
to high altitude since 1959. In the whole two weeks we were there,
I didn't feel that I had fully adjusted to the altitude change.

One's ability to adjust to most physical challenges diminishes with age
(past 20). The body builds up your red-blood cell count with extended time
at a high elevation, which I think would not occur as rapidly as one
gets older.

The only experiences I have with altitude change is the usual pressure build
in the ears. =P I've lived in low altitudes all my life. Alpena is damn near
sea level being a lakeshore town.

I just spent a long weekend up north on Elk Lake (near Traverse City).  It
was miserable. :(  It was cool and rainy and the mosquitoes were all over.

I'm going to visit a friend in Holland in a couple of weeks.  We're going
cycling in Belgium, which should be fun.

Alpena is damn near 580 feet above see level (which is Lake Huron level).
Speaking of age and adaptation to altitude...when I lived in CA a group
of colleagues and I used to hike and climb in the Sierra Nevada. We were
all age ca. 30-35, and in great condition. One summer a cousin of one
of us came along and we spent a weekend climbing Mt. Lyell, starting at
about 8,000 and climbing to about 14,000. The cousin was 19 and had not
had any mountain or climbing experience. He would run ahead, and then
run back to see how we were doing.......

The highest elevation i'vre hit on this trip so fasr was at mcdonald pass, the
continental divide at 6850 ft. on us-12 just west of helena montana. my bike
had a little trouble breathing (i lost some power) but i was fine.

Right now i'm at the Speakeasy, an internet cafe in seattle.

at some point soon, i plan to be climbing cliffs in oregon....
i'll leave the bike for that part....

a very cool little state park near selby, south dakota named
Lake Hiddenwood State Park, was my home one night this past week.

it is literally invisible from anywhere more than 1/4 mile away.
it is sunken into the middle of the great plains, and it is a lovely little
oasis in a grassland desert.


on the other hand, the Whitewater Lake Campground in the Kettle-Morain State
Forest in southern Wisconsin was mosquito hell last monday night, 1 july.

Updates as I reach computers,.....

It's generally believed by mountaineers that older folks adapt better
to high altitudes.  Something to do with maintaining acid/base balance
in the body.  It's probably not very well studied or understood, but
I think it's clear that people under 30 or so are at higher risk of
pulmonary embolism and other altitude-related problems.  There's a
lot of individual variation.  Just be sure not to get dehydrated.

i just got back from summer camp... it was great... i hd so much fun... the
staff was *really* cool, there was someone from england, so that was cool,
cuase we talked about england and york (cause i was there last april).  And
there was another guy from Poland, who taught me how to swear in polish, and
made me a copy of his polish techno cd....
tomorrow i'm leaving for vacation up north with my family... busy summer.

[This is item 37 in agora and 57 in the travel conference.]

i will have to take that road janc..thanks..:) i am very excited!

We used to camp alot when I was a kid. We would go mostly to the Skyline Drive
area (Applachians) in VA. Whenever it would rain, we would have to huddle in
the middle of the tent and 'don't touch the the sides'. Plus there was one
family who seems to bring the rain with them. We joked about not inviting them
so we could have a sunny wekend!

They call it... Camp Lucky.

Not for the venile reasons, campers. No, they named it after the dog from the
small, peglike woodem people we played with as children (granted, before
Transformers). Every year my friend rents cabins at Cedar Lake Recreation
Area. They rent 120 beds and fill half. Honestly, I *believe* that it was
originally intended for the computer geeks like my friend and I - a few days
in summer where even computer geeks could play in the sun. We cook out, we
camp out, we build fires and *do not* dixcuss tech. We drink booze or pop,
we play silly games like croquet and Cosmic Encounters. We run around with
squirt guns so large we have to carry ammunition on our back. On Saturday
morning, they roll out the plastic... industrial strength, 120 feet long, down
the side of a 40' hill. There's a generator at the bottom running a pump,
which shoots water back up to the top wher the slip-n-slide begins. We travel
down the length on pool floats, innertubes and rubber boats never designed
to hold more than two people (but they fit six on this slide). Sure, it's
dangerous. Sure, insurance companies would never cover us. But it's Camp
Lucky, and it comes but once a year... 

Interested? Email me back and I'll list your name for invitation. Not that
I have the authority to invite you. But I *could* mention it to the Lucky's
That Be for next year. 

This item has been linked from Travel 57 to Intro 85.
Type "join travel" at the Ok: prompt for discussion of
distant lands, and how to get there.

When I wnet to Winter Park in 1992, I recall getting kinda giggly and dizzy
as we went up the mountain. I then spent the next 2 days  starved for air.
I'm asthmatic though, so maybe that is why.

Two years ago, otter, peacefrog spidyr and I were camping for convention in
Colon, MI. Spidyr and peacefrog were in their own tents and otter and I shared
one. Saturday morning, I was awakened by voices and laughter. I rolled back
over thinking that they would go away, they didn't. I finally dragged my sad
self out of bed and went outside to see people from surrounding sites circling
our site pointing, laughing and taking video and still photos.
Looking around I saw that some people had brought out the lawn chairs and were
sitting facing our site. I looked over and saw peacefrog's tent had collapsed
on him, and he was inside snoring. It looked like a big blue catterpillar that
had been harpooned with all the ropes and poles lying in disarray around the
former pup tent.
The assembled crowd clapped politely as I approached peacefrog's tent to sift
through the wreckage to see if he was OK. After much effort (after waking
otter and spidyr to see this event) I finally found which end was his head.
A little twisting and pulling revealed the back of his head, which was easy
to find by following the snoring.
I wrestled my way through and rapped him on the head. He moved slightly,
bringing down the rest of the tent poles and rope. From deep within the nylon
coccoon I hear peacefrog's still small voice saying "Am I dead?"

when i was a young kid, my family went camping in the UP. that
particular summer there were millions of caterpillars everywhere.
i thought it was cool, until i woke up one morning with caterpillar
guts smooshed all over me and my underwear. evidentally the day before they
somehow got into the tent and into my sleeping bag.
or maybe my brother put them there?

my most recent vacation was a couple of months ago. went to
mt st helens, and got to crawl through a lava tube.
<crawl is too strong of a word.. saunter is more like it. it was HUGE>
went whale watching.. saw orcas, harbor seals, sea lions munching on 
fish, sea otters, bald eagle, porpoises, etc. had to take
drammimine.

due to many untreated childhood ear infections, my inner ear is
not very adaptive. i get motion sickness very quickly. and i
dont adjust to altitude changes very easily. sigh...

I was camping in Yosemite Valley once - actually just sleeping on the
ground at the foot of a campsite table, where I had left my cookkit. I was
awakened at dawn by the rattle of the pans - and looked up to see a bear
on the table above me. I closed my eyes again, and decided not to get up
just then. [We've discovered that a *lot* of people have camping bear
stories...though almost all end without damage to goods or persons,
fortunately.]

I didn't realize they had orca in lava tubes.

There are lava tubes that run to and under the sea - on Tenerife, or
someplace out there. I didn't know any tubes from Mt. St. Helens did that,
either.

It would indeed be difficult to see Orcas from a lava tube, since:
a) there are no whales there
b) it's very dark

Chris was, of course, discussing a different part of the 
same vacation, in the San Juans.

oops

On my last big vacation I saw the world from just shy of 10,000 feet
ASL, a bit east of I-15 in the south part of Utah.  I definitely felt
the rarefied character of the air (made it harder to climb to get good
pictures) and the car was way below par, but I did okay.

i just returned from my 7749 mile motorcycle odyssey (37 days).
I camped my last night on top of my bike at a 75' observation tower
on eagle ridge, Il, overlooking Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois.
there wasn't anyplace dry to lie down so I tried to sleep on my bike.

In Sturgis, SD, I slept on the ground under a truck belonging to a
leathers vendor at the bike rally.

In Forsyth Montana, I camped on a mosquito-infested, recently flooded but
now relatively dry flood plain.

there were many more....

other, about how many bikers go to tht Sturgis Ralley, I was driving through
SD around that time and couldn't believe how many bikers I saw, seems like
it is a big event.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss